Current Jobless Numbers Should Not Be A Gauge

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While the US jobless numbers ARE indeed staggering at roughly 3 million newly unemployed, we should NOT use these numbers as an initial gauge of the current state of the economy, NOR should we use it as a current gauge of future impact on jobs. It is a preliminary number that is largely based on recent claims due to the decision to shutter certain businesses in the short term as we deal with the Coronavirus spread. Depending on how long this goes on, some of these jobs may well be permanently lost. However, many of these people will actually return to work eventually. So the numbers may be less, and quite a lot less once shelter in place orders are lifted and certain businesses can resume business as usual. By their nature the numbers may be higher today. But in the future I think they will be much, much lower. But like anything with this, it is a matter of wait and see. I think we just need to be careful about how we process all of this information. Including jobs numbers, bearing in mind that these workers may not be unemployed permanently. Instead, they are simply temporarily on hiatus without a paycheck. Joblessness normally has to do with economic conditions being unfavorable to a large workforce. These numbers were due to forced shut down of certain businesses.